The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move…”

While we would love to claim The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as our own, it was actually published in the last year before the dawn of our favorite decade… so we’ll go ahead and sing the praises of the 2nd book (of five) in Douglas Adams’ glorious (and a bit nutty) trilogy.

When Restaurant hit shelves in 1980, we were eager to catch up with our friends Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Trillian, Zaphod, and Marvin, who are on their way (via spaceship) to grab a quick bite to eat at the aforementioned eatery.

Of course, being attacked by those pesky Vogons is enough to make anyone lose their appetite, and since Arthur had to go ahead and ask for a cup of tea from the onboard computer, well… there’s no way to use the Improbability Drive to shake the evil aliens.

To those of us who are well-versed on Adams’ world, Restaurant is an utterly loony continuation of one of the more ingenious and imaginative sagas ever.

From Frogstar Fighters to Zarniwoop, from “42” to the crash landing on prehistoric Earth, there’s enough here to keep you guessing for years. And what’s up with having a spaceship that you can shrink down and keep in your pocket?

Two years later, the saga would continue with Life, the Universe and Everything (oh yes, we’ll have more on that later…) but in the meantime, grab your towel, and set your course for five hundred and seventy-six thousand million years in the future. Your table at Milliways is waiting for you.

“The Universe as we know it has now been in existence for over one hundred and seventy thousand million billion years and will be ending in a little over half an hour. So, welcome one and all to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe!”